


hearts of fire

by psycho_raven



Category: Castlevania (Cartoon), 悪魔城ドラキュラ | Castlevania Series
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, M/M, alucard eternal widower, but it's been like... 400 years, impplied major character death, impplied open relationship, lot's of flashbacks, no beta we die like men, post symphony of the night timeline, subtle Richter/Alucard if you squint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-15
Updated: 2020-02-15
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:41:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22726327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/psycho_raven/pseuds/psycho_raven
Summary: Alucard tells Richter and Maria the story he knows better. The story of Trevor Belmont.
Relationships: Alucard | Adrian Tepes | Arikado Genya/Trevor Belmont
Comments: 7
Kudos: 89





	hearts of fire

Every time Richter comes to visit, the three of them meet in front of the campfire. Alucard is always the last one to leave.

Richter could stay all night talking about his family's adventures, and that's what he does. But eventually, alcohol beats him and it’s Maria who must take him to bed. Alucard puts out the fire and with a gentle nod rejects his invitation to return inside.

“I want to see the sunrise. But I can help you with Richter if you need it” 

“Oh, don’t worry. I'm used to dragging him. Is this a Belmont tradition that I am not aware of?” 

If Maria put a little less attention to Alucard, if she had blinked, she would have missed the murmur of a fresh river that is his laugh. _Oh, you have no idea._

“Goodnight, Maria. Say goodnight to Richter.”

“In your name!”

She stays in the doorway, staring at him for a few seconds. His aristocratic silhouette cut in the darkness of the forest. The two parts of Alucard. She watches him put out the fire and remain motionless like a statue, watching that no creature in the forest interrupts his friends' dreams.

There is something undoubtedly sad in his profile. But also... Maria shakes his head, putting the thought aside. She will pay more attention next time. Now she has to make sure that the legendary Belmont doesn't die of a hangover.

( _It's a familiar image, Master Alucard_ , Imp mumbles at his side and Adrian gets a bit lost in the sound of his own breath, falls apart a little and let the wind take him to another time).

* * *

“We already know that story, Richter.”

“Of course you know it, the Belmonts don't have stories. We have legends.”

“Well, then we know all your legends.”

“Maybe you, but Alucard missed four hundred years of those because of his little nap.”

“...I know them well.”

“What about the story of Trevor Belmont? The first of our line to defeat Dracula-- Ah, but that’s the story Alucard must know better than anyone, right? Why don't you tell us about it?   
  


* * *

_Tell them the story of Trevor Belmont, who gave everything because the only thing he had left was his life and he gave it without thinking twice. Tell them how lost and broken he was, and how it didn't matter because that couldn't extinguish his glare. His heart like a living flame, ablaze in his hands when he offered you his own throat and whispered_ eat me, vampire _, without fear or regrets or anything but the insolent glow of his gaze. The legend that Trevor built with each step, with each word. The way he danced with animal grace holding Morning Star, how that left you breathless, thirsty but less alone, less lost._

_Tell them the story that should be a cautionary tale to warn others of the terrible dangers lurking in the dark, but ends being a love story.  
_

* * *

“There is nothing I can say that you don't know already.”

There it is again, Maria notices. Suddenly the air between them becomes unusually clear and Maria knows that Alucard is lying. She is not sure what the lie is - but it's one that fills his face with a clean sadness, different from the stabbing pain that always accompanies him or the dejected resignation of the four hundred years. It's a sadness that he embraces, that purifies him. It's a sadness that brings with it the calm of a secret that only he knows.

Whatever the lie, the story that nobody else knows, Maria is sure that it’s something that Alucard is going to take to the grave. Metaphorical. Which means that he will carry it within his heart forever.

For some reason, Maria finds it as sad as it’s beautiful.

On the other hand, more generations of Belmonts are needed to develop the ability to perceive these subtle changes in the environment, so Richter continues.

“Surely there is! You met him-- We know the legend, tell us what he was like. Tell us what Trevor Belmont was like.”  
  


_(Oh god, how could he? where should he start?)_

* * *

“Why did you never tell me that the castle had a wine cellar? Shit, Jesus Christ. You are the worst.”

“I did it for your health and to preserve some of my father's wines. There are bottles here that must triple your age, Belmont.”

“I'm going to fucking cry.” 

Trevor carried to the table as many bottles as they fit into his arms, under Alucard's resigned but not surprised gaze. At least Trevor accepted the cup Adrian offered him, so he wouldn't drink straight from a bottle that was centuries old. Small favors

They sat down to drink on the kitchen table, facing each other. But soon it became too cold for Trevor who insisted they move in front of the fireplace.

“You know something? Ignoring the entire context of... you know, Dracula's deadly castle... This place is nice.”

“I thought that at the third bottle you would start talking without thinking. May your ancestors not listen to you, Belmont.” 

“My ancestors would understand if they knew about the wine cellar.”

Alucard couldn’t contain the laughter, something already normal in the company of Trevor. Even so, he stared at the way Alucard threw his head back slightly as he laughed, his mouth half-opened letting the pale fangs peek through his lips inked by the wine. The sound of his laughter echoed like the sprouting of water through the rocks of the lighter, purer stream when you are so thirsty you think you may die. 

Trevor felt enthralled by the seconds his laughter lasted and drank the last thing left in his almost empty glass.

* * *

“He was a drunkard.” 

“What?!”

Richter and Maria exclaim at the same time. The first one opening his eyes in an expression of pure shock because he has definitely never heard anyone speak like that of Trevor Belmont, the founding legend of his clan. 

Instead, Maria covers her mouth with surprise, but then to hide her laughter. She has never heard Alucard refer to someone in that way, without the layers of cordiality and courtesy that get confused with distance and coldness. Maria understands, then. Trevor Belmont was his friend.

“Worrying at times. I really don’t understand how he lived so many years when there was more alcohol in his veins than blood. Although I must admit that he endured his drink better than you, Richter.”

“You are not serious…”

“Completely. All his stories began in bars and ended with someone on the floor.

...Well, all but one." 

* * *

“Shit, I'm going to die. Dracula couldn’t kill me but his expensive wine of a thousand years could. Fantastic.”

“You are not going to die, Belmont. And if you do, it wouldn't be the fault of my father's wine, but rather of because of your excesses.”

“I hate you, vampire. I hate you and your wine and your devilishly soft bed”

“Rise, Belmont. Sypha is coming to pick you up at noon and I must deliver you in decent conditions.”

Trevor responded with a growl that Alucard took as a signal to drag him off the mattress, removing the blankets under which he was hiding. 

Another sound of protest. Then Trevor took his wrist to prevent him from taking off his coat. Adrian could have used his strength to throw him across the room, but suddenly Trevor's hand closing firmly around his wrist burned like the summer sun burns the vampires whose veins no human blood runs.

And without warning, as Trevor Belmont did everything in his life, he pulled Alucard against him, making him lie in the bed just a couple of inches away from Trevor’s warm body. 

Alucard, whose skin was always cold due to his nature, felt that he was going to burn when he found himself facing Trevor - handsome, magnificent, impossible - who just smiled and whispered in the most intimate way: _five more minutes._

* * *

“What now? Are you going to tell us that he defeated Dracula by chance? We know he had help but--”

“No” 

Maria can see the way the air changes around Alucard, how he chooses his words carefully despite how casual and familiar they sound. The secret is still there, stored somewhere deep and unattainable inside his heart and Maria envies Trevor Belmont a little.

“No. Nothing in his act was chance or luck. Trevor Belmont was many things, things that legends never cover. But the things they do tell about his skill, his courage, and his devotion... Each one of those is true. But there is something that isn’t as the legend says..."

“And what is it?”

“The phrase that you use as a shield now, the Belmonts... You adjudge it to Trevor, right? 

Richter inflates his chest with something that Adrian immediately recognizes. That fire, that pride, that intrinsic trust of those who carry their surname. One foot in heaven and another in hell, but never a hint of fear in them. 

“The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is that good people do nothing.” 

Alucard nods to himself, satisfied not only with the answer but also the way in which it was stated. The cadence, the force. Richter is definitely the descendant of Trevor.

“Yes, that one. Originally it had many more curses.”

* * *

_Tell them about the man, Adrian. What legends never rescue. Tell them how he cursed, drank, laughed and kissed like an animal. Tell them the exact color of his eyes, too clear for someone so lethal. How he loved the heretic parties of the poor people, dancing half-drunk holding your hands with his face too close to yours. Of how he burned with a passion that for so many years the church tried to bury. But it sprouted for you in the same way that his blood flowed. And how he never gave you less than everything._

_And now on the top of an altar, the legend of his formative image. But they didn't know him like you, Adrian. No one knew the last Belmont as Dracula's only son did._

* * *

“Adrian, listen to me--”

“No, Belmont. There is nothing to talk about. You have a life outside this castle, outside these... parentheses or whatever you wish to call them.”

“ _Trevor_ is Trevor. I think that after fucking as we fuck at least we are on first-name basis.”

“This can not be--”

“Why?”

_(Because even if you don't look like it, you're mortal and you're going to leave and a part of me with you and God I don't know how many more times I can die and keep staying here. Because you should continue having children to fill Europe with that terrible lineage of yours. Because it doesn't matter if we stop this now, it's too late)._

Alucard failed to make any sound, he only made a sad, defeated noise and rested his forehead on Trevor's broad, warm chest.

“Because you're going to hurt me, Trevor.”

“Nothing worthwhile comes without pain.”

And so easily Trevor convinced him. 

* * *

Maria notices that this has happened before but to a lesser extent. She hasn't lived with Alucard for a year without learning a couple of things. Richter enters the room and only one gesture is needed, the way he sits or how he grabs the handle of the mug. The way he laughs, filling the entire room. Or how he takes his hand to the whip in his belt at the slightest strange sound.

Only that is needed for Alucard to place his taciturn look on him and a halo of both melancholy and familiarity makes his golden eyes shine. 

Maria understands now that he is looking for someone else in the figure of Richter. It makes her wonder who is he really seeing, during the fraction of seconds the spell lasts.

When she hears him speak in front of a surprised Richter, evoking memories he hasn't vocalized in centuries. That's when she begins to fit the pieces of the secret that Alucard hides. The things he saves for himself. Those that are only his. 

_(The impossible brightness of his eyes when he gave unthinkable forms to the length of Morning Star, covered in blood. How was it possible for Trevor to not be a creature of the night? How would they not belong together when both pariahs had met in the middle of the hell._

_You can't put those things in words, you just can't)._

“The owls hated him. He set one foot in the forest and the birds swooped against his head.”

“It seems to be something about the Belmonts, the crows and I are not on good terms.”

Alucard keeps telling anecdotes, nostalgia replaced - or rather in the company - of something lukewarm slipping into his words. Affection. Maria listens carefully with the impression that she is in the presence of something intimate, a part of Alucard reserved for someone from four hundred years ago.

She recognizes something in his gestures. It’s not the first time they talk about Trevor Belmont, although Alucard usually occupies the role of listener. 

There's always a time in their nights together when Richter talks about the most renowned of his ancestors, Trevor taking the most important seat. That's when Alucard raises his head and watches him speak. He always changes the position in which he is sitting and drags his long fingers to the place where his heart is. 

It’s only a moment and then is gone. He exhales and the steam that comes out from between his lips draws shapes that rise over his face when he lowers his head again, an indecipherable glow in his gaze.

Now when he tells the story of an especially fun battle between The Great Trevor Belmont and an owl, Maria recognizes the same gesture. The slight laugh and the hand in the heart.

Trevor Belmont and Alucard were in love, she concludes.

* * *

“Do your children know about me?”

“Are you kidding me? I tell them our story all the time.”

“...Trevor, I don't think--” 

“Shut up, not that one. That story is only ours. But how we kicked your old man's ass? That is what I tell them before bedtime.” 

“Ah, I'm glad that parricide makes your creatures sleep.” 

“Don't put that face to me, I know you're going to love them. And they will love you too. Belmonts have a soft spot for sulky half-vampires.”

“You must be joking... Are you planning to bring them to the castle? Trevor!”

“I owe them the visit. Do I have to remind you that not only the castle is here? Your house and mine.” 

“Our home.”

Trevor smiled, nodding at Adrian's words. His fingers sliding through his hair like silk. Their bodies naked and tangled. That one story wasn't going to be in any book. But that story wasn't going to die with him either, not while Adrian lived. Both curse and blessing.

“Hey, Adrian.”

“Mhn?”

“When the other Belmonts tell my story-- Now that there are going to be other Belmonts. Wow, that sounds strange...”

"Your point, love?"

“True, right. Look, when they tell my story I don't want it to sound like I was a serious and stretched old man. Okey? I want them to remember other things, too. That is to say, helping to end Dracula wasn’t all I did.”

“Sounds like you've done a lot of things, Trevor Belmont. Tell me what else have you done in this life?”

“Loving Dracula's son, for example.”

Oh. _Oh._

“Don’t worry. I'll make sure everyone knows that you were an impossible drunk.”

* * *

_He made you promise it, so you speak. It’s time already, even if it still hurts, even if it's still the most amazing thing, the most beautiful in this terrible and wonderful world._

Alucard never starts his stories with _once, I loved a man, the sworn enemy of my people. And he loved me back._ Adrian prefers to start by saying Trevor was a drunkard. 

* * *

Richter has to return the next day because he needs an extra one to recover from the hangover. 

Maria doesn't make a sound when early in the morning, just before leaving, she finds them too close in the kitchen.

“Take care, Maria, Alucard. And you know…”

Richter pauses, looks at him and adds:

“And you know, if anything happens let me know and I'll come running.” 

Alucard nods slowly, shaking his hand in a grip that is suspended for more seconds than the necessary. Then Richter hugs Maria and they both go out with him, to watch him leave. 

Maria puts a hand on Alucard's forearm who stares at the horizon until Richter's silhouette is confused with the light of dawn. That way, blurred backlit, it could be any silhouette.

It could be someone else.

“Let's go inside, Alucard. You haven't had breakfast, right? I will cook something for you.”

“I want to stay for another moment... I will go in a few minutes.” 

This time Maria doesn’t insist.

* * *

“Next time I will come with the boys, right? I'm planing a small vacation here, so prepare the other rooms.”

“Manners, Belmont.”

“Please?” 

Adrian sighed but immediately brought a hand to Trevor's cheek, the one with the scar. He stroked his cheekbone with his thumb and left a brief kiss on his lips to then fix the fur coat on his shoulders. 

Dressed like that, with a couple of years more the head upright, riding his horse, Trevor made the title of heir of the Belmont family fall short.

“Take care of yourself, and give my regards to your people.”

“Of course I will. And hey--”

“Yes, Trevor?”

_I love you._

“If anything let me know and I will come running.”

“I know.”

_I love you too._

The words they didn't say were always suspended in the air between them. But it wasn't necessary. Trevor looked at him one last time from head to toe, to take the picture with him for the duration of his way back home. A different one, with another life full of adventures and hunter stories. A Belmont life. 

Trevor knew well that while the sun was rising, Adrian always stayed to watch him leave. Without being affected by the light he stood there, standing still, like a statue to which he always turned to see.

And every time Adrian stayed until Trevor was lost on the horizon line. The image of his broad back, his straight bearing and the cape fluttering in the wind, were again part of his memory.

It wasn't different on that occasion. Adrian stayed even long after the sun came out and there was no more Trevor to say goodbye. But even though the sun rays already shone above his head of gold, the only heat he had left was the memory of a parting kiss on his lips.  
  
A kiss that had to last for a lifetime. 

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Valentine's day to my favorite pair, and happy s3 trailer!
> 
> I took a lot of things from SotN and from its Drama CD: 
> 
> \- It's stated there that Maria and Alucard live together some time, with the familiars too (I'm sure Imp knew Trevor and they fought a lot), and Richter comes often to visit them. 
> 
> \- In the phone game Alucard talks a bit about Trevor, and trust me, those are the words of a man in love. 
> 
> \- That quote that Richter and Alucard complete each other at the end SotN? “The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is that good people do nothing.” It sounds awfully similar to Trevor's "For evil bastards to win power, all ordinary people have to do is stand aside and keep quiet."
> 
> Of course, Trevor had to recreate the clan so I assume he had his little Belmont kids with someone (Sypha or whonever you want tbh), his wife and Alucard knowing that he was going from one place to another. He is a wanderer at heart, after all. And polyamory is a thing ok.


End file.
